The grand opening of the Harpswell Collective, a gallery and studio space in the former Estes Lobster House, attracted hundreds of curious visitors during the third annual Harpswell Open Studio Tour on July 18 and 19.
The weekend event showcases local artists in their studios and galleries, allowing visitors to experience their workspaces and see their art.
The Harpswell Collective timed its opening to coincide with the event. The building boasts an open gallery space on the first floor and both private and shared studios on the second floor. Future plans include a retail shop downstairs and an event space for pop-ups, workshops, classes or yoga. Owners Liz and Andy Ziegler also plan to put in a kitchen for cooking events.
The Zieglers dreamed up the concept a few years ago while living in Massachusetts. They had bought a home in Harpswell in 2018 and visited regularly while continuing to live and work in Massachusetts. They just moved to Harpswell permanently two months ago.
Both Liz and Andy consider themselves creatives, and they wanted to give other creatives a space to work and show their art.
Like many in the community, they said, they watched the long-established oceanside restaurant sit empty for years after closing in 2020. As the previous owner put it up for sale and the price slowly dropped, their conversations grew more serious.
“I remember looking at Andy and I was like, ‘Are we going to kick ourselves for not doing this? This is such a beautiful building. It’s the community that we love and we know we want to live in,” Liz recalled. They bought it in August 2025.
This weekend’s grand opening was a success. “Hundreds and hundreds of people came through,” Andy said.
Visitors were excited to see the transformed interior.
“There was a lot of shock and awe,” Liz said.
The couple shared credit for the success of the opening with their neighbors and the people who helped them renovate the space.
Guests browsed the gallery, with paintings hung across crisp white walls and huge, open windows overlooking the water. Upstairs, artists engaged with visitors while they sketched or painted, worked on glass-blowing, or displayed their art.
Elsewhere on the tour, Angela Coron was welcoming tour participants to her home studio near Harpswell Center.
Coron is a lobsterwoman who works on a boat out of Lookout Point. Her children are both student lobstermen. The family moved to Harpswell a couple of years ago.
“I feel the most at home here, so here I am,” Coron said.
The late Gary Anderson, a well-known Harpswellian, was the former owner of the home. He was an artist himself and built a small, comfortable shed to work in. Now, Coron uses it as her studio.
Coron is a self-taught artist who has been painting since she was a little girl. Most of her work centers around the female figure. She also works in botanicals, film, pottery and textile dyeing.
Coron decided to join the event after seeing a map for a previous tour.
“There’s a lot of artists in Harpswell. I had no idea until I saw the bullets on the map,” she said. “That’s what made me feel like, oh, I should totally do this.”
A short drive north, Paul Wild was participating in the tour for the first time, displaying his paintings from his home on Neils Point Road. His studio is attached to the back of the house, an open space with big glass windows.
He and his wife, Helen Wild, are from England, but moved to the U.S. 20 years ago and Harpswell eight years ago.
Paul Wild began painting around the time they moved here, but he has pursued it more seriously in the last two or three years. He said his father inspired him to paint and taught him how to see nature from the perspective of an artist.
He specializes in coastal scenes and marine art. Many of his paintings display landscapes, boats or oysters, capturing coastal living in colorful detail.
“I absolutely love painting. I love spending the time to create an image that somebody else might appreciate,” he said.
